Although there are no exact figures for the number of Orthodox faithful in the country, according to a report by the newspaper El Universo in 2017, it is estimated that there are at least more than 400 parishioners in Guayaquil, mostly descendants of Palestinians, in addition to people converted to Orthodoxy.
[4] Eastern Orthodox Christianity arrived in Ecuador through the immigration of people from Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon.
[5] During the 1960s, a group of people from Guayaquil, descendants of Palestinians, began to organize to form an Orthodox community called Fundación Cultural Católica Apostólica Ortodoxa Santa María, whose goal was to form an Orthodox church in Guayaquil.
Currently, the parish called "Anunciación de Santa María" is located in Central Urdesa, in Guayaquil, under the command of archimandrite Rafael Chepernich.
Since 2007, there has been an Orthodox church that belongs to the Russian Patriarchate, it is under the command of archpriest Alexei Karpov.